The UN and a new set of goals: Fit-for-Purpose?

Event Type
Book Launch and Expert Discussion

Location / Date
Bonn, 12.12.2014

German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

While the United Nations (UN) are central to the process of determining the new set of goals that will follow the Millennium Development Goals in 2015, there has been little introspection on its own organisational capacity to help countries to meet them. Which role should it play in the implementation of the new agenda? How does the UN-system need to change to become more “fit for purpose” in response to the emerging post-2015 agenda? What are the chances for reform, and what are the obstacles? Which role can Germany and other Western countries play? These questions were at the centre of the expert discussion on the occasion of the presentation of the book “Post-2015 UN Development. Making Change Happen?”.

Agenda

13:00 h: Short presentations by the contributors to the volume and panel discussion

• Silke Weinlich, Senior Researcher, German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)
• Thomas G. Weiss, Presidential Professor of Political Science, Director Emeritus, Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies, The Graduate Center, City University New York
• Stephen Browne, Director, Future of the UN Development System (FUNDS) Project, Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
• John Hendra, Senior Coordinator “UN Fit for Purpose” for the Post-2015 Development Agenda (United Nations, New York)
• Jürgen Zattler, Deputy Director-General, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany
• Ambassador Martin Frick, Representative of Germany to the International Organisations based in Germany, Federal Foreign Office, Germany

Moderator

Stephan Klingebiel, Head of Department "Bi- and Multilateral Development Cooperation" German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE)

About the book

Based on extensive original research that has critically examined the role and functions of the organizations of the UN development system, this book seeks to capture in a single volume a comprehensive review of the UN’s performance and prospects for development. The contributors each offer extensive experience and familiarity – as practitioners and researchers – with the UN and development; and the book will contribute to the urgently needed debate on the reform of the UN development system at a critical juncture. They include the executive director of the Third World Institute Robert Bissio, the former head of the UNDP Geneva Office Cécile Molinier, the director of the Brooks World Poverty Institute David Hulme, the former World Bank senior official Robert Picciotto (now visiting professor King’s College), the former representative of the Secretary-General in Sierra Leone, Michael von der Schulenburg, as well as Silke Weinlich from the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE).

About the participants

Stephen Browne is Co-Director of the Future of the UN Development System (FUNDS) Project and Senior Fellow at the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The CUNY Graduate Center. He worked for more than 30 years in different organizations of the UN development system, sharing his time almost equally between agency headquarters and country assignments. He has written books and articles on aid and development throughout his career, among the most recent The United Nations Development Programme and System (2011) and The United Nations Industrial Development Organization (2012), and is co-editor of Post-2015 UN Development Making Change Happen? (2014)

Martin Frick is the representative of Germany to the international organisations based in Germany. Previously, he was Deputy CEO/Director of the Global Humanitarian Forum, a Geneva based foundation set up by former UN-Secretary General Kofi Annan. From 2005 to 2007 he served as the German representative for human rights and humanitarian affairs at the United Nations General Assembly and was Consul and Deputy Ambassador in Albania from 1999-2002. Martin holds a PhD in Law from Regensburg University, and a diploma in International Relations from SciencePo Strasbourg, France.

John Hendra is Senior Coordinator “UN Fit for Purpose” for the Post-2015 Development Agenda. Until October 2014, he served UN Women’s Deputy Executive Director for Policy and for Policy and Programme. Over the past years, he has also been engaged in global and national consultations and public debate about the post-2015 development agenda as well as about UN reform. John served as UN Resident Coordinator in Vietnam (2006-2011) where he spearheaded the “One UN Initiative”, as well as in Tanzania (2002-2006) and Latvia (1993-1997).

Stephan Klingebiel is Head of the department “Bi- and Multilateral Development Cooperation” at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). From 2007 to 2011 he was director of the KfW Development Bank office in Rwanda. His research and university teaching focuses on political economy of aid, aid & development effectiveness, and governance issues in sub-Saharan Africa, and crisis prevention and conflict management.

Silke Weinlich is a senior researcher at the German Development Institute / Deutsches Institut für Entwicklungspolitik (DIE). As a political scientist specialized in international relations, she works on international organisations, the United Nations, and multilateral negotiations with a specific view on the role of developing countries and rising powers. She holds a doctorate in political science from Bremen University and is a member of the Research Council of the German UN Association. Among her most recent publications is the book The UN Secretariat’s influence on the evolution of peacekeeping (2014).

Thomas G. Weiss is Presidential Professor of Political Science and Director of the Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies at The City University of New York’s Graduate Center. His most recent single-authored books include Global Governance: Why? What? Whither? (2013); Humanitarian Business (2013); What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix It (2012); and Humanitarian Intervention: Ideas in Action (2012). He is co-editor of the Routledge "Global Institutions Series" and co-director of the Wartime History and the Future United Nations Project and of the Future UN Development System Project. Tom is co-editor of Post-2015 UN Development Making Change Happen? (2014).

Jürgen Zattler is presently Deputy Director-General for Multilateral and European Policy in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development. Prior to this position, Mr. Zattler was Head of the Division on World Bank, IMF, and debt related issues and Deputy Head of the Division for WTO and trade policy. His previous professional experience in the public and private sector includes also positions at the European Commission in Brussels, where he worked on macroeconomic issues related to developing countries, and the Dresdner Bank in Berlin. Mr. Zattler holds a PhD in Economics.

Hinweis

Während unserer Veranstaltungen werden z.T. Foto- und/oder Filmaufnahmen gemacht, die für Zwecke der Veranstaltungsberichterstattung und allgemeinen Öffentlichkeitsarbeit in verschiedenen Medien veröffentlicht werden. Sie haben jederzeit das Recht, die Foto- oder Videograf*innen darauf hinzuweisen, dass Sie nicht aufgenommen werden möchten. / During our events photos and/or videos may be taken which may be published in various media for the purposes of documentation and PR activities. You have the right at any time to point out to the photographer or videographer that you do not want to be photographed or filmed.